Arsenal start search for the next big player

Wanted: football director for ambitious London club with established Premiership and Champions League credentials. Must have experience in the transfer market, a bulging address book of international contacts and a willingness to schmooze and entertain on behalf of the club. The successful applicant should enjoy working long hours and juggling mobile phones, and the trust and friendship of Arsene Wenger would be highly advantageous. Apply in writing to Arsenal Football Club, Emirates Stadium, London N5 1BU.

This is not an easy position to fill. Parting company with vice-chairman David Dein has left Arsenal with a pile of unexpected problems, but the most urgent one concerns finding a replacement for a man who has filled a unique position at the club for more than a decade: deal-broker, networker, ambassador and rock-solid friend of the manager.

The close season is around the corner. It is the period of the year that used to be Dein's most demanding, as he immersed himself in the business of wrangling with the many agents who represent players these days.

Now who will untangle the largely unsatisfactory Julio Baptista-Jose Antonio Reyes swap deal that expires in the summer? Who will sort out the goalkeeping position with Jens Lehmann's contract about to expire? Who will fend off the annual vultures that hover over Arsenal's leading players, such as Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas? Who will sign the fresh blood necessary to strengthen the squad? And, most pertinent, who will renegotiate Wenger's contract, which soon starts running into its last year?

Dein would have been responsible for all of those critical matters. There have been a few optimistic mutterings from within the club that Arsenal have other executives capable of covering for him. Nobody fits the bill properly, however. Of the most senior directors, Old Etonian chairman Peter Hill-Wood cannot be trusted to avoid an outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease at any time. Majority shareholder Danny Fiszman, as a tax exile, is not in a position to work at Arsenal on a daily basis. Managing director Keith Edelman is a number-cruncher who lacks the charisma and football knowledge to be a player within the game's inner sanctum.

So who can fill the void?

That issue was just about the only topic that raised a smile from Arsene Wenger at the London Colney training ground on Friday, when he faced the media for the first time since the departure of his great friend two days previously. It was a wry smile, though. 'Are you free?' the Frenchman asked his inquisitor.

So who is free? An obvious candidate is Lars-Christer Olsson, who until recently was Uefa's chief executive. Since resigning on a point of principle after the man he backed - Lennart Johansson - lost leadership of Uefa to Michel Platini, he has been twiddling his thumbs at home in Sweden. He is a smart and highly regarded football administrator who has good connections in the game. However, he told Observer Sport yesterday that he is not interested. Indeed, he believes Arsenal should appoint a chief executive rather than a director of football.

'In my opinion big clubs like Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool should have a chief executive, someone who has a combination of business management skills and knowledge of the way football is run,' said Olsson. 'It should be someone like David Gill or Peter Kenyon. Chief executives are the future for big clubs, especially when you have a strong coach. You have to have a chief executive who can handle that. A chief executive can't deal with a coach and the team in the same way that you deal with the staff of a normal company, especially with all the emotion involved, media coverage and pressure from the fans.'

Arsenal have a choice to make between the more administrative and sporting types of director. Notably, the other three members of the Premiership's big four have chief executives with a business background - Peter Kenyon at Chelsea, David Gill at United and Rick Parry at Liverpool. Arsenal may choose to scour the business world for a contender used to negotiating multimillion-pound deals, but Wenger's worry in this case is how the club will compensate for the football enthusiasm Dein brought to the table.

Wenger was confident that if a guest needed impressing - being looked after and made to feel special during a visit to the club - Dein would deliver on his behalf, leaving him free to concentrate on team affairs. Wenger also valued the fact that Dein provided Arsenal with strong representation at Fifa, Uefa, the FA, the Premier League and G14 after decades on the scene.

Arsenal's alternative route is to follow the continental style of a director of football steeped in the game. Roberto Bettega filled such a role for Juventus, Jorge Valdano at Real Madrid and Leonardo is being groomed at AC Milan.

Although he has no Arsenal connections, Gerard Houllier is a possible candidate. The former Liverpool manager is expected to leave Lyon at the end of the season and he ticks a lot of boxes. He is a friend of Wenger, a lover of English football, a well-liked communicator with excellent contacts and he has been a technical director with France, so he is not averse to an 'upstairs' role. Ottmar Hitzfeld, another experienced football man to whom Wenger is close, could have been in the frame but is committed to Bayern Munich for another year.

A more controversial choice would be Damien Comolli, who is Tottenham's sporting director but is a man whose affiliation with English football began with several years working under Wenger as Arsenal's scout in France. The pair had a close working relationship.

When asked about the role of director of football after yesterday's dramatic 2-2 draw against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, Wenger confirmed there would be an appointment and the decision on who got the job would be his. 'It will happen, but I haven't given it any thought,' he said. 'It will be my choice.'

At the end of a trying season for Wenger, finding a replacement for Dein is a headache he could do without. That said, the headlines predicting an exodus, with Wenger the first to go, are jumping the gun. If a friend is ousted from the company you work for, it is not normal to walk out in sympathy. Wenger has a relationship with the club independent of his relationship with Dein and it was no surprise to hear him reiterate his commitment to his squad, his staff and the fans last week.

There is no indication he is leaving, but there is no question that his position will become difficult if Dein is not replaced as a matter of priority. Wenger will not look forward to a season that promises to be tougher than this one if he is without an enhanced squad, without an ally who is his link with the board and without any stability.

To judge from the continuing purchase of Arsenal shares by American billionaire Stanley Kroenke, it looks as if there will be a turbulent battle ahead anyway. Over the past few days, Wenger has been caught between a rock and a hard place. He is torn between loyalty to a friend and respect for his employers.

He is also torn when it comes to the matter of a hostile takeover. Although he would side with Dein over any other member of the board, he has never been pro-investment. It was only a couple of months ago that he ridiculed the idea of being given a £100million war chest from an overseas billionaire because it would interfere with his sacred development project.

'This is the work of five years and now to destroy what we have done by buying names would be crazy,' he said. 'To put a big name in front of players we have developed for years wouldn't make sense. I would say to the guy, "Keep your £100m and invest it somewhere else."'

Wenger is shrewd enough about business to realise that however much he is Dein's friend, the former vice-chairman must have made a misjudgment in his tactics recently to have provoked his fellow board members to remove him. Was there more to the 'irreconcilable differences of opinion' Hill-Wood spoke of than meets the eye? Rumours abound that Dein privately approached Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith to see if she would sell out to Kroenke, rather than dealing openly with the entire board.

Dein is lying low, trying to come to terms with such a traumatic change in his life; he feels, for the first time, that he cannot go to support his team. Not being at White Hart Lane for yesterday's north London derby was strange indeed. The sense of loss will be exacerbated if he feels that he must exclude himself from Arsenal's two remaining home matches, against Fulham and Chelsea. Losing the chairmanship of the G14 group of European superclubs and his positions on the FA Council and international committee - consequences of his ousting at Arsenal - will exacerbate his loneliness.

Dein has had considerable support from fans who want an injection of new money to help to close the gap on Chelsea and United. But not all are convinced. As a contributor to the Arseblog website succinctly observed of a Kroenke takeover: 'We wouldn't be a rich man's plaything. We'd be a rich man's wallet and washing machine.'

On Friday, Wenger was asked how he might like a handsome cheque to sign an established goalscorer for next season. 'I would like to bring in Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie in the summer,' he replied, pointedly. It has been a troublesome season, but there could be a lot more trouble ahead.